Thoughts on the Broken Skull

D

DocT

Joined
Mar 25, 2012
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I really like the upgrades in steels Cold Steel is offering and I like a lot of their products. I also, realize that Cold Steel targets mostly tactical or defense oriented people. One of their latest offerings is the Broken Skull. I have been hammering on them for a long while (others have too) for new colors and they have listened. Cudos. The new Broken Skull will be offered in some very nice colors (love the blue and orange). However, for reason I cannot fathom, Cold Steel made the blades black with that ugly writing on the blade. This was the knife I was hoping for (I will know more when I see it), but it has that writing and black coating. Aesthetically, these just do not look nice. Plus, in today's legal environment, if you had to defend yourself, an over zealous prosecutor, building a reputation, would crucify you for using a knife with a name like Broken Skull, not to mention that it has it emblazoned in large letters on the black tactical blade. Come on Cold Steel. Give us a break.
 
Don't know about the big words on the blade, but I think the black coating is what makes this model stand out. I personally think the color scales would not look as good on a satin blade.
Again this is totally a subjective thing, I personally would like cold steel to continue using the great DLC coating. Just don't be cheap and use the old crappy teflon coating for the lockbar.
 
I'm very interested in this knife, I'm not however very interested in the giant "broken skull" written on the side of it. Really wish I could get one without that but I understand it's a collaboration with Steve Austin. Anybody know if it's linerless? Sure hope so. Also love the shape and profile, looks like it's probably very comfortable in hand. Great blade steel, shape and size, excellent DLC coating, all in a very affordable package. I think this ones gonna be a real winner, but the wording on the side is going to deter a lot of people.
 
dkblade said:
I'm very interested in this knife, I'm not however very interested in the giant "broken skull" written on the side of it. Really wish I could get one without that but I understand it's a collaboration with Steve Austin. Anybody know if it's linerless? Sure hope so. Also love the shape and profile, looks like it's probably very comfortable in hand. Great blade steel, shape and size, excellent DLC coating, all in a very affordable package. I think this ones gonna be a real winner, but the wording on the side is going to deter a lot of people.
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I'm very certain that they will be linerless. The only G-10 triadlock that has liner right now is the G-10 Espada series and it's a partial liner. Also only the Grivory one has aluminum liner, like the Voyager and the Rajah series. CS seems to be moving towards using thinner linerless since last year, like the lawman, holdout, tiger claw or the black talon 2. Broken Skull model looks like it's using the same g-10 so it's probably following the trend..
 
Hate the name, hate the coating, hate the writing on the blade, but I love the specs enough that I'll definitely pick one up.
 
Wow, a collab with Stunning Steve Austin (that goes WAY back to when he had long blonde hair :eek:) wrestling here in Dallas at the Sportatorium. I had no idea but agree it would look pretty cool w/o the dang writing all over the blade but I guess that is how you pay the bills...
 
The name seems silly until you learn that Broken Skull is the name of Steve Austin's IPA. That makes it an interesting little conversation piece in my books. I've yet to try it but would love to sometime, and Steve Austin has been my favorite wrestler since day one.

Cold Steel is clearly not concerned with making their knives look innocent to prosecutors. I'm not, either. I care about performance-oriented features. With knives like the Steel Tiger, Espada and Black Talon in production (and I'm sure in many of our collections), we're worried about a slim EDC knife sporting the name "Broken Skull" on the DLC coated blade? Give me a break.

I'm going to get at least one. Probably with a white or orange handle. I'll leave my decision to discounts and sales.
 
Kwon Kwang said:
The name seems silly until you learn that Broken Skull is the name of Steve Austin's IPA. I've yet to try it but would love to sometime, and Steve Austin has been my favorite wrestler since day one.

Cold Steel is clearly not concerned with making their knives look innocent to prosecutors. I'm not, either. I care about performance-oriented features. With knives like the Steel Tiger, Espada and Black Talon in production (and I'm sure in many of our collections), we're worried about a slim EDC knife sporting the name "Broken Skull" on the DLC coated blade? Give me a break.

I'm going to get at least one. Probably with a white or orange handle. I'll leave my decision to discounts and sales.
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It being the name of his IPA doesn't make it any less silly.
 
But it is good beer, one of my favorites. We have quite a few small, high quality brewers here in TX.
 
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You could just strip the blade with some paint stripper, right? Or maybe duracoat/cerakote? Looks really neat I hadn't heard of these. As far as the over zealous prosecutor deal, that has happened and all, but I don't know how often it has actually worked. It just gets repeated a lot. I wouldn't worry about that aspect, life's too short. You could get the pink handled version if you're that worried and I'm sure said prosecutor wouldn't touch on its appearance one bit :)
 
Duh Arrhea said:
You could just strip the blade with some paint stripper, right? Or maybe duracoat/cerakote? Looks really neat I hadn't heard of these. As far as the over zealous prosecutor deal, that has happened and all, but I don't know how often it has actually worked. It just gets repeated a lot. I wouldn't worry about that aspect, life's too short. You could get the pink handled version if you're that worried and I'm sure said prosecutor wouldn't touch on its appearance one bit :)
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No stripper on DLC coating. It's inert to most chemical u can find. The only way is to sand it off, but good luck with it, it's technically harder than the sandpaper. That's what's good about DLC coating, thin yet wear resistance, and has strong bonding with the metal underneath it.
 
The DLC on my CS Recon 1 is almost like bluing on gun metal vs the teflon coating so it does seem like it would be hard to strip.
 
Yeah I wish CS would offer their knives in the plain stonewashed finish. Coatings are unnecessary and stoopid and I really don't want to have to strip it off. DLC is better than what they had before but still unnecessary when you have a perfectly good stainless steel blade.
 
Kwon Kwang said:
The name seems silly until you learn that Broken Skull is the name of Steve Austin's IPA. That makes it an interesting little conversation piece in my books. I've yet to try it but would love to sometime, and Steve Austin has been my favorite wrestler since day one.

Cold Steel is clearly not concerned with making their knives look innocent to prosecutors. I'm not, either. I care about performance-oriented features. With knives like the Steel Tiger, Espada and Black Talon in production (and I'm sure in many of our collections), we're worried about a slim EDC knife sporting the name "Broken Skull" on the DLC coated blade? Give me a break.

I'm going to get at least one. Probably with a white or orange handle. I'll leave my decision to discounts and sales.
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Interesting I suppose if you're a fan of stone cold Steve Austin and WWF. I don't have anything against him but I think WWF wrestling is ridiculous and I don't care for that name. I do however like the broken skull IPA...it is quite delicious! I just think they're isolating their customers assuming we all like pro wrestling. I'll still buy one though because I really like the design...I think it's gonna be a real winner!
 
I agree with most of you. It looks like the knife I´ve been waiting for but that writing really makes me hesitate. I would love to see it in a satin finish as well. Hopefully Cold Steel listens to the community. They still have plenty of time to change it just like they changed the lock on the karambit folder last year.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
Hate the name, hate the coating, hate the writing on the blade, but I love the specs enough that I'll definitely pick one up.
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Same, I don't mind a nice blade coating for some knives, on this one it doesn't really bother me, but the absurd prototypical Cold Steel name, the way it is written on the blade so it is fully legible while the knife is closed, eh, hate it.

I do love the look of the handle, it looks like a nice clip-point Triad alternative to the Endura.
 
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